Olympics | Women's soccer: Wambach leads the charge

Olympics 2012

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GLASGOW, Scotland — Abby Wambach lay on her stomach, kicking the turf in pain from a freshly minted black eye. Had she been somewhere other than a soccer field, she might have responded differently to her aggressor.

Instead, she merely broke the U.S. women’s soccer record for goals at the Olympics.

Wambach’s second-half goal put her atop the career list yesterday as the Americans dominated Colombia 3-0, guaranteeing a spot in the quarterfinals of the London Olympics.

Megan Rapinoe scored in the first half and celebrated by wishing injured teammate Ali Krieger a happy birthday. Carli Lloyd had a late goal in her return to the starting lineup.

But niceties were otherwise few and far between in a game that included 30 fouls — with no altercation more painful than when Lady Andrade hit Wambach in the face in the 39th minute.

“I’m running toward the goal to get position, and I got sucker-punched,” said Wambach, sporting a black semicircle under her swollen right eye. “It’s clear. We have it on film, so it’s up to the Olympic committee and (world soccer governing body) FIFA to decide what to do.”

Wambach said Andrade kept on taunting in the second half and attempted another blow to the face — but missed and hit Wambach’s neck. When Wambach scored in the 74th minute to make it 2-0, the achievement felt particularly sweet.

“It’s interesting — you think about yourself and what you would do on the street if somebody were to sucker-punch you,” Wambach said. “And you have all of the lists of things that you would probably do to retaliate. But this is the Olympics, and I can’t risk getting a red card, I can’t risk getting a yellow card. We like to call it ‘ice’ — stay ice-cold. They’re trying to get me to retaliate, and I’m proud of myself for not doing that.”

Andrade called the play an accident.

“Nothing happened,” she said through an interpreter. “It was just a normal part of the game. We were both running, she ran across me and we collided. I had my hands in the air. It was an accident.”

Told that Wambach wants Andrade disciplined by the governing bodies, Andrade said: “I think they should be, too, because they’re the United States. The whistle always goes in their favor. They were hitting us and hitting us, but there was never a whistle.”

Wambach, 32, looked like her younger self on her goal, sliding onto Tobin Heath’s pass to beat two defenders. She joked that she was using her “blazing speed.”